SME Policy Index for Western Balkans and Türkiye 2026 – Economy Profile for Albania

Albania: SME definition and data coverage

SME definition

The classification of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Albania is defined by Law No. 43/2022 on the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, which categorises enterprises by employment and turnover or balance-sheet criteria. The employment thresholds conform to the EU standard, but the financial criteria diverge substantially. The maximum turnover for a medium-sized enterprise is ALL 250 million (Albanian lekë) (approximately EUR 2.4 million), compared to EUR 50 million under the EU definition, a gap of more than 20-fold (Table 1) (European Commission, 2003[1]; Government of Albania, 2022[2]).

Table 1. Definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Albania

Category	EU definition	Albania
Micro	< 10 employees; ≤ EUR 2M turnover or balance sheet	< 10 employees; ≤ ALL 10M (~EUR 97 000) turnover or balance sheet
Small	< 50 employees; ≤ EUR 10M turnover or balance sheet	< 50 employees; ≤ ALL 50M (~EUR 487 000) turnover or balance sheet
Medium-sized	< 250 employees; ≤ EUR 50M turnover or ≤ EUR 43M balance sheet	< 250 employees; ≤ ALL 250M (~EUR 2.4M) turnover or balance sheet

Notes: Financial thresholds in Albanian law are expressed in ALL (Albanian lekë). EUR equivalents at 2024 average exchange rate (~ALL 100.5/EUR), rounded. For statistical purposes, the Institute of Statistics of Albania classifies enterprises by the number of employed only.

Sources: European Commission (2003[1]); Government of Albania (2022[2]).

SME data coverage

The sector overview above draws on statistical sources published by the Institute of Statistics of Albania (INSTAT), which serves as the principal source for all SME-relevant data used in this chapter, including the Structural Business Survey (SBS), foreign trade disaggregated by enterprise characteristics, and business demography statistics. Eurostat datasets provide supplementary macroeconomic context.

Together, these sources underpin the analysis of enterprise structure, sectoral composition, productivity dynamics and export performance. Table 2 summarises the key data dimensions, their availability and currency.

INSTAT publishes size-disaggregated SBS data, broken down into micro, small, medium, and large enterprises in accordance with the EU standard definition, and provides separate disaggregations by NACE Rev. 2 economic activity. However, a direct cross-tabulation by both dimensions simultaneously is not published, and the figures underlying Table 4 were derived by applying size-class percentage shares from the annual SME publication to sector-level SBS totals. Value added by sector and size class are not available from any published source.

The most recent SBS reference year is 2023; for foreign trade disaggregated by enterprise characteristics, data extend to 2024 and include joint breakdowns by size class and economic activity. Business demography data – active enterprises, births, and deaths by economic activity – were published by INSTAT for the first time, covering 2021-2023, disaggregated by headcount bands and NACE sections. Macroeconomic context indicators are drawn from INSTAT and Eurostat national accounts and labour force survey databases.

Table 2. Core statistical sources for the SME sector overview, Albania

Data source	Size-class breakdown	Sectoral breakdown	Size × sector cross-tab	Time series	Key indicators
Structural Business Statistics (SBS)	Yes (micro, small, medium, large)	Yes (NACE Rev. 2)	Partial (derived from published percentage charts only)	2016-2023	Number of enterprises; number of persons employed; value added (and, derivatively, labour productivity) – value added not available in size × sector cross-tabulation
Foreign trade by enterprise characteristics	Yes (micro, small, medium, large)	Yes (NACE Rev. 2)	Yes	2013-2024	Number of exporting firms; export value (and, derivatively, average export value per firm and export growth)
Business demography	Yes (headcount bands; not standard SME size classes)	Yes (NACE Rev. 2)	Yes (sector × headcount band cross-tabulation available)	2021-2023	Number of active firms; enterprise births; enterprise deaths (and, derivatively, net entry)

Sources: INSTAT (2024[3]; 2023[4]; 2024[5]; 2024[6]); Eurostat (2024[7]; 2025[8]).

In addition to the publicly available statistical sources above, the assessment of individual policy dimensions in this publication relies on a dedicated set of statistical indicators collected through standardised questionnaires administered by the OECD to national counterpart institutions, principally INSTAT, the Bank of Albania, the Public Procurement Agency and the Albanian Investment Development Agency, with supplementary inputs from the Ministry of Finance. The questionnaires cover nine thematic areas corresponding to the policy dimensions of the SME Policy Index, plus a general statistics module on structural business demographics.

Of the approximately 160 indicators requested at the economy level, Albania provided data for roughly one-quarter with meaningful multi-year coverage, with a further set reported as single-year snapshots. Coverage varies considerably across dimensions: the strongest reporting is in access to finance and internationalisation, where the Bank of Albania and INSTAT, respectively, provided near-complete time series, alongside solid coverage of core structural business statistics; the lowest coverage is in bankruptcy proceedings and the green economy, where the questionnaires were returned with little or no data. Gaps in enterprise demography ratios, gender-disaggregated business ownership below the aggregate level, and SME-specific innovation metrics are cross-cutting and reflect systemic limitations in the national statistical infrastructure rather than dimension-specific shortfalls. Table 3 summarises the coverage by thematic area.

Table 3. Statistical data coverage by thematic area, Albania

Thematic area	Coverage	Indicators reported	Principal gaps
Structural business statistics	Substantial	Enterprises, employment and value added by size class (2019-2023); women-owned enterprises by size class; sectoral breakdown by NACE Rev. 2 for enterprises, employment and value added across all business economy sectors	Enterprise demography ratios (birth and death rates, survival rates, high-growth firms, gazelles); exports by enterprise size class; women-owned enterprises disaggregated by sector
Entrepreneurial learning and women’s entrepreneurship (Dimension 1)	Moderate	Share of women CEOs and female self-employment rate (2019-2024); share of women in state-funded entrepreneurship programmes (2019, 2022-2024); share of women graduating in STEM tertiary fields (2019-2024); share of female university graduates (2019-2024); growth rate of women-owned enterprises (2020-2024)	VET work-based learning exposure; share of majority female-owned businesses; government contracts awarded to women-owned enterprises; STEM VET graduates; share of IP registrations by women (series discontinued after 2020)
Bankruptcy and second chance (Dimension 2)	Limited	Number of closed bankruptcy proceedings (2021-2024)	Average time and cost of liquidation and reorganisation proceedings; discharge and credit score clearing timelines; flow of newly opened proceedings; non-performing loans (total and SME); debt ratios, liquidity and productivity of failing vs. total SMEs; B2B payment delays
Public procurement (Dimension 5b)	Moderate	SME share in the total value of public contracts and SME participation rate in tenders (2022-2024); SME participation in electronic tenders (2022-2024); share and value of contracts awarded to foreign operators (2019-2020, 2022-2024); procurement complaint filing and resolution rates (2021-2024)	Payment delays from public authorities; green and social criteria in public contracts; share of public tenders with green or social criteria awarded to SMEs; court complaint resolution rates
Access to finance (Dimension 6)	Substantial	Outstanding business loans and SME share (2019-2024); interest rates for SMEs and large enterprises (2019-2024); collateral requirements, total and SME (2019-2024); loan application and rejection rates (2019-2024); credit guarantee scheme volumes and government direct loans (2019-2024); leasing and factoring volumes (2019-2023); number of fintech firms (2019-2024)	Private equity, venture capital and crowdfunding volumes; bank account penetration (single-year 2024 observation); green financial product awareness (single observation, 2023)
Enterprise skills and innovation (Dimensions 8a and 8b)	Moderate	Long-term unemployment rate and over-qualification rate (2019-2024); number of registered social enterprises (2019-2024); SME product, process and collaborative innovation rates (CIS rounds 2020 and 2022); GERD, BERD and direct government R&D funding (2021-2022)	Job vacancy rate; SME training incidence; co-operative register; social enterprise demographics; BERD performed by SMEs; tax incentives for business R&D; IP filing and enforcement by SMEs; most recent CIS round covers 2022 only
Green economy (Dimension 9)	Limited	Main questionnaire returned without data; supplementary worksheets provide CO₂ emissions by NACE sector (2021-2024) and partial energy consumption data (2022-2024); environmental economy value added worksheets returned empty	All SME-specific indicators absent: public support for green production, resource efficiency, circularity and renewable energy adoption; environmental management systems, ecolabels and green products; SME risk insurance and climate resilience measures
Internationalisation (Dimension 10)	Substantial	SME export share and total SME export value (2019-2024); SME share in total goods exports (2019-2024); average export value per exporting SME (2019-2024); export growth rate (2019-2024); share of SMEs integrated into global value chains (2019-2024)	SME goods vs. services export breakdown; export composition by NACE sector; government expenditure on export support (single-year 2024 observation only)
Digital transformation (Dimension 11)	Moderate	E-commerce sales by enterprise size class (2019-2024); share of SMEs with basic digital intensity (2021-2023); share of enterprises with a website (2021-2024); AI technology adoption and ICT security measures (two observations each, 2020-2024); environmental impact measurement by enterprises (2022, 2024)	Business software adoption (ERP, CRM – single 2024 observation); digital payment acceptance; ICT security incidents; big data analytics; 3D printing; IoT adoption (single observation each); public support measures for digital SMEs absent

Notes: Coverage assessment based on data submitted through OECD statistical questionnaires by national counterpart institutions.

“Substantial” denotes that a majority of indicators were reported with multi-year series; “Moderate” indicates that core indicators are available, but important sub-indicators are missing or reported as single-year snapshots only; “Limited” applies where below one-quarter of indicators were provided or data are restricted to single-year estimates. The assessment reflects data as received; some gaps may be addressable through alternative national or international sources.

CEOs: Chief executive officers; STEM: Science, technology, engineering and mathematics; CIS: Community Innovation Survey; GERD: Gross domestic expenditure on research and development; BERD: Business enterprise expenditure on research and development; R&D: Research and development; CO₂: Carbon dioxide; AI: Artificial intelligence; ICT: Information and communication technology; VET: Vocational education and training; IP: Intellectual property; B2B: Business-to-business; ERP: Enterprise resource planning; CRM: Customer relationship management; IoT: Internet of Things.

The availability of comprehensive banking and lending data, a near-complete SME trade series, and solid structural business statistics provides a stronger-than-average quantitative foundation for assessing SME access to finance and internationalisation in Albania. However, the near-total absence of data on bankruptcy proceedings and the green economy, combined with partial coverage of indicators for innovation and digital transformation, constrains the depth of policy analysis in these dimensions. Systemic gaps in enterprise demography ratios, SME-specific R&D metrics, and gender-disaggregated business ownership data below the aggregate level limit the scope of assessment across multiple policy areas and point to priorities for strengthening Albania’s statistical infrastructure in the coming years.